A yellowish patina which develops with moisture, an intense and spicy flavor. The strange story of one of the most unusual Coffee’ in the World: the Indian monsonato.

In the 1800s, we know, the carriage of goods and people between continents took place with sailing ships, and the time is not measured in hours or days, but in weeks or months. If many fortified wines, such as Marsala or porto, were created for this very reason, adding alcohol to wine to promote conservation, the length of this type of travel was also the protagonist of an accidental discovery in the world of coffee.

When the British sailing ships that arrived from india with sacks of coffee, were unloaded in the port of London to agents and dealers, on the surface of the grain had formed a yellowish patina. Having much concern to the costs and complications of throwing the coffee away that was so “Brown” was not easy, they tried to use it anyway, getting roasted and once prepared, a drink that was particularly intense and full-bodied, very spicy; coffee monsonato was born, Or rather, was born on intuition, why did they take that long to understand that the secret of this coffee so special was the yellowish patina, practically a mold (much like that of cheese production), which grew on the surface of coffee, later moisture sauce that covered the coffee during the long carriage by sea created the coffee.

At that point, and especially when the carriage of goods by sea began to be carried out with the fastest steam ships, Indian coffee manufacturers were increasingly tempted by producing this coffee directly in the plantations, and what better humid climate could there be but in India, except during the rainy season, the tropical monsoon? Producers of coffee began storing coffee in department stores without walls, so that the coffee was struck almost directly from the monsoon rains and developed the famous patina.

Modern times, you know, they always change, and in recent years the monsonato coffee is produced without waiting for the monsoon, the simple solution, exposing the humidity to the coffee. Essential with both old and new methods, you remove the coffee in the humidification phase, so as to avoid unwanted fermentation.

Change the resistance into the boiler of the espresso machine are simple and essential.

An espresso machine is fairly simple with not many fundamental components. Inside the machine there is a boiler, where water is heated and kept warm by a resistance.

The real enemy of this simple machine is limestone. It is precisely an enemy, in particular to the strength, where limestone tends to settle and calcify and not allow multiple resistance to perceive (via thermostat), water temperature and heat if the temperature is too low.

Also having a water softener in support to the machine and keep it in order to regenerate and replacing periodically resins, it is possible that after a few years the limestone has accumulated on the resistance and you begin to notice anomalies in temperature of the coffee and manometer indicating the pressure in the boiler (which should be around 1.2) in this case proceed to replace the resistance.

It is not particularly difficult, and on this page you can find a lot of info in coffee machines maintenance very well described.

From the Philippines comes Kopi Luwak Coffee from a type of Squirrel/Rodent, now another bizarre coffee but somehow familiar comes along. Corn coffee.

In recent years, the Philippines, Indonesia, became very famous in the world of coffee to the Kopi Luwak, the famous coffee made with grains eaten and is fermented in the Luwaks intestine, an Asian rodent.

But the vein of discovery by this Asian nation doesn’t end here, given that one of the latest news in the world of coffee comes from there. A novelty really bizarre, yet for us Italians should not be so strange. This is the coffee, corn coffee, or maize. To produce it the beans are roasted, which with the roasting, aroma and flavor of “roasted” ending up to looking like, coffee.

As I said, for us Italians this should not be so strange, given that since the 1930s, another cereal, barley was created and sold using the same motivations that Filipinos promote with their corn coffee: the fact that it is caffeine-free and that it is healthy …is a bonus, but, ah, well, you may be also aware that Indonesia also produces the strongest coffee in the world ….so a healthy corn coffee is an added bonus.

Next dates for our school on espresso and cappuccino perfect! You can find the new dates here

As always are full immersion courses for a day, from 10 to 17 with no more than 5 members.

The program of the latte art course includes a brief theoretical part in which he talks about the right milk, the right mix of coffee cappuccino (exist, a cappuccino made with coffee bad feels!) of milk to the milk just art. Then follows a long part practice that mounting of milk you care the versaggio to get the basic figures: the heart and the leaf, and learn the basic rules that will allow us to do the other figures like the Dragon and the butterfly. All with the help of video and the “dry” technique.

For those who were interested in the world of Café quality course the program is as follows:

History and geography of coffee

Botany and plant knowledge

Systems for collecting and processing.

Picking and stripping. Natural and washed method

Roasting and Blending. How do I create a mixture

Knowledge and maintenance of machines

The preparation of the espresso, grinding and pressing coffee

Introduction to wine tasting coffee; taste of some coffee in single source for its organoleptic differences. The sweetness of the central body of the Indonesians.

The new application of famous mobile phones that teaches the recipes of Italian coffee is Only in English and cut for American tastes, but really cool.

Two statements that I’m not afraid to deny.

The first is that Americans can have (many have) a great passion for “Italian” coffee and with this passion often they become more talented than us Italians (believe me, unfortunate but true, but not always I might add …).

The second is that applications for the popular mobile Iphone, now there are many, really is for everyone.

We take these two assertions, and the new application for the Phone call “Home barista” an application that offers recipes of all preparation bar with a basis of coffee, but also much more.

In the latest version, for example (some are recent updates) are videos that show how to make coffee and caffe’ latte, macchiato, but also instructional videos on latte art and the Cappuccino’s with the leaf and the heart; nothing that we have not already seen on You tube, anyway, still very cool.

In addition to this there is also useful curiosity as a stopwatch from starting when you start to do an espresso; to understand if the grinding is right.

Using it must be said that the program appears to be cut for a household use, and that many bartenders (barista’s) “real barista’s” will find it quite stupid (or, as the Americans would say “For Dummies”) there is, however, to say that in the America there are a fare few world enthusiasts that while doing other work they feast at home in the art of being a barista, sometimes even to the point of buying green coffee beans for home roasting according to their taste.

The program for this, only in English, and looking at the list of preparations which were found, the recipes you’ll find not many are known in Italy, as the Flat white (An Australian Invention) (actually in italy is known as a latte macchiato) or mocha coffee (a milky coffee with chocolate)

A yellowish patina which develops with moisture, an intense and spicy flavor. The strange story of one of the most unusual Coffee’ in the World: the Indian monsonato.

In the 1800s, we know, the carriage of goods and people between continents took place with sailing ships, and the time is not measured in hours or days, but in weeks or months. If many fortified wines, such as Marsala or porto, were created for this very reason, adding alcohol to wine to promote conservation, the length of this type of travel was also the protagonist of an accidental discovery in the world of coffee.

When the British sailing ships that arrived from india with sacks of coffee, were unloaded in the port of London to agents and dealers, on the surface of the grain had formed a yellowish patina. Having much concern to the costs and complications of throwing the coffee away that was so “Brown” was not easy, they tried to use it anyway, getting roasted and once prepared, a drink that was particularly intense and full-bodied, very spicy; coffee monsonato was born, Or rather, was born on intuition, why did they take that long to understand that the secret of this coffee so special was the yellowish patina, practically a mold (much like that of cheese production), which grew on the surface of coffee, later moisture sauce that covered the coffee during the long carriage by sea created the coffee.

At that point, and especially when the carriage of goods by sea began to be carried out with the fastest steam ships, Indian coffee manufacturers were increasingly tempted by producing this coffee directly in the plantations, and what better humid climate could there be but in India, except during the rainy season, the tropical monsoon? Producers of coffee began storing coffee in department stores without walls, so that the coffee was struck almost directly from the monsoon rains and developed the famous patina.

Modern times, you know, they always change, and in recent years the monsonato coffee is produced without waiting for the monsoon, the simple solution, exposing the humidity to the coffee. Essential with both old and new methods, you remove the coffee in the humidification phase, so as to avoid unwanted fermentation.

Latte art competitions are often the dream of people who begin to make cappuccino with the heart, but in these competitions it is not measured only the beauty of a cappuccino, but also the technique, harmony of the work and the quality of the mixture.

The dream of many people who come to our latte art courses is to begin a journey that takes them to participate in competitions for latte art, decorated cappuccinos taking place at various levels, from regional Championships & World Championships held this year in London.

But like the competitors, these competitions develop themselves?

Many guys/girls expect to be awarded only for the beauty of the decorations, designs that you make on the Cappuccino’s, but that is not the only case, it is very very important also to have the technical part and of knowledge of how latte art is done.

The race begins by setting the machine and the coffee grinder settings. The machine is largely the same for all competitors, but each competitor, using his own blend of coffee will have to change the grinding up to make the coffee flow in approximately 25 seconds, so changing a grinder for each individual blend is an important factor in good coffee making.

Also the choice of the blend of coffee cannot be random. Each competitor shall explain which blend they use and why; but don’t say simply that is a blend of 100% Arabica or 80/20, that doesn’t explain anything about the bean blend, you must add your knowledge about what kinds of Arabica and Robusta beans make up the blend and what sensations come from the palate!

The formula for judging on the coffee machine is in the same for all Championships, it is the preparation of espressos, spotted/stained, two milks, and finally two cappuccinos, decorated with the use of milk-only (no topping and chocolate syrups to write!). Even time is significant, the maximum is 8 minutes for all.

Every technical detail is evaluated during the competition. Cleaning the machine, cleaning the filter holder is important as it would have old Coffee in it (always brush away or remove with your hand cloth). It must have clean edges once pressing/tamping has been done (which must be perfect, well leveled and strong).

It evaluates the elegance and efficiency of the movements and finally evaluating sharpness and accuracy of the drawing. Everything will then be served to the judges adequately.

The judges will assess how well they did the coffee, the beauty of the decoration and also the taste of preparation which has to be perfect with temperature and pleasantness of the mix

(This means that even the milk quality is very important also)

The competitions take place usually with qualifiers, semi-finals and for the final best 6.